Friends remember kindness, strength of SUSD's Cazares

Saturday

Apr 27, 2013 at 12:01 AM

STOCKTON - It was Feb. 20, 2012, and a large crowd was gathered at the Van Buskirk Community Center in south Stockton to listen as 21-year-old Michael Tubbs announced his upstart candidacy for the City Council.

Roger Phillips

STOCKTON - It was Feb. 20, 2012, and a large crowd was gathered at the Van Buskirk Community Center in south Stockton to listen as 21-year-old Michael Tubbs announced his upstart candidacy for the City Council.

Flashing a radiant smile and giving a thumbs-up signal that day was Sara Cazares, a white helmet protecting her skull. It had been only 17 days since Cazares, Stockton Unified School District's board president at the time, had suffered a stroke and brain aneurysm but she was determined to be present for Tubbs' big moment.

Tubbs recalls being stunned Cazares had shown up so soon after a life-threatening medical event. She had only been out of the hospital a couple of days.

"Why are you here?" Tubbs asked her.

Cazares replied, "I wouldn't miss it for the world."

A wide swath of the Stockton community, from educators to activists, has been mourning the 48-year-old Cazares since her death last Saturday from complications following a medical procedure related to last year's health crisis.

"She was maybe the most well-versed person on the most number of issues having to do with education," said Ellen Old, president of the Stockton Teachers Association. "She was just this stunning resource. The idea that she could be gone, ... there's going to be a gaping hole. It was such a sea change having someone on the board with that knowledge and acumen. We are going to miss her in more ways than you can imagine."

Remembering the days following the death of her husband, Dana, in early 2012, Lincoln Unified Trustee Van-Ha To-Cowell recalled the trough of tamales and Mexican breads Cazares dropped off at her home.

"She was just very kind and very strong with social justice, always wanted to help someone and find the fairness in things," To-Cowell said of her friend. "We just meshed that way."

A Franklin High School alum and graduate of Harvard University with a degree in social anthropology, Cazares and husband Larry Hernandez have two college-age sons, Ricardo and Luis. Cazares and her husband, a longtime Stockton Unified math coach, were among the organizers of San Joaquin Grassroots Action, a nonprofit organization with a focus on community service and politics.

Kari Khoury, another organizer of the organization, recalled Cazares and Hernandez frequently setting up tables at flea markets to register voters, knocking on doors during election campaigns, and leading food and book drives.

"Where there was a need," Khoury said, "Sara was there."

Cazares was known to dig into her wallet to give $100 to total strangers enduring family crises. One of her unrealized dreams was to create a Stockton version of Homeboy Industries, a Los Angeles-based program that assists high-risk youth with free programs including tattoo removal, education and job training.

A long-time Stockton Unified volunteer before her election to the school board, Cazares' causes extended beyond education to areas ranging from single-payer health care to equal rights for the LGBT community.

San Joaquin Pride Center Director Nicholas Hatten recalls reaching out early this year to several school districts in a bid to build bridges with K-12 educational institutions. Cazares, he said, was the first person to return his call "and the only one to commit to having us sit down with the district and figure out ways we could partner."

Assemblywoman Susan Eggman, D-Stockton, choked up this week as she spoke of her longtime friend. Cazares was on hand just a few months ago when Eggman was sworn in.

"We have all lost a huge advocate for children, for our community, for the Latino community," Eggman told fellow Assembly members.

Cazares had to be cajoled into running for the Stockton Unified board in 2010. Despite pleas from friends, she insisted she was "better in the background" until a pivotal meeting late in the spring of 2010 with Eggman and Clem Lee, a former school-board member and councilman.

"You have to run," Lee told Cazares, and Eggman poured on the pressure, urging her friend, "You have what it takes to serve, you have what it takes to win; we'll help you, and if you don't do it, it's a sin." Though Cazares laughed off the suggestion of transgression, it helped sway her, Eggman said, adding, "Catholic guilt goes far."

When Cazares finally decided to run to represent her east-central Stockton area, she waged a fierce campaign and scored an easy victory over incumbent Bill Ross. She had been planning to seek re-election next year.

In December 2011, after a year on the school board, Cazares and Tubbs were among those attending a meeting with Father Dean McFalls of St. Mary's Church.

Tubbs had no idea who Cazares was when she approached him with a smile and introduced herself. Within weeks, she was an early leader of Tubbs' ultimately successful City Council campaign.

To help him look the part, Cazares even bought six neckties for Tubbs, who at the time was still completing his bachelor's and master's degrees at Stanford University.

"This is going to temper a lot of what I do," Tubbs said of Cazares' passing. "She made such a big impact with her service, her heart, her insight. We were very much kindred spirits. She was tenacious, she was courageous, she wasn't afraid of conflict. She was literally a loved one, a family member. It's going to hurt."